


an ode to what could have been

by tinycutefauna



Series: One Piece One Shots [9]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Just Sengoku being a sad old man with his rambling thoughts, also he gets drunk (I think I don’t actually know how alcohol works)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinycutefauna/pseuds/tinycutefauna
Summary: There was exactly one day of the year that Sengoku allowed himself the luxury of letting himself falter. That was the day he had heard of the death of the only person he had thought to call 'son'.-Aka Oda has many sad, old men and it is our duty as fans to be sad about them
Relationships: Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante & Sengoku the Buddha, Monkey D. Garp & Sengoku the Buddha, Sengoku the Buddha & Tsuru
Series: One Piece One Shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1898179
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	an ode to what could have been

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me out of the blue and is very sad and rambly. Enjoy!

There was exactly one day of the year that Sengoku allowed himself the luxury of letting himself falter. That was the day he had heard of the death of the only person he had thought to call 'son'.

He sighed as he finished up the paperwork that was too urgent to leave and put the rest of it aside. It had been a quiet day. Not for Justice, Justice was always struggling, but for him. Garp had done him the favour of redirecting almost all missives that headed his way and taken his goat too so that Sengoku could drink in peace to his long-dead son.

It was painful to think about Roci but he let himself remember everything anyway. The way he had stared up at Sengoku with wide, fearful eyes the first day they had met. The way he had clutched to Sengoku in complete vulnerability the first time he had found Roci having a nightmare. The way he would grin brightly at Sengoku often - even after he, repeatedly and painfully, tripped over himself to show that he 'wasn't hurt at all!'

Roci had been a good kid. He'd done his best to listen to Sengoku and follow the rules and be a part of Justice. A bitter part of Sengoku spoke up about how he had betrayed them and died anyway.

For a pirate too. A kid, the sole survivor of Flevance (and hadn't that been a mess? Along with countless others that made the weight of the coat on his back feel immeasurably heavy). The kid had lived and become a pirate while Roci had died, likely killed by his own brother with the way Doflamingo acted.

Roci had always been terrified of Doflamingo, though he had once whispered to Sengoku about how he couldn't bring himself to stop loving his brother despite how much he hated him.

Had Roci hated Sengoku for what happened with Flevance? He couldn't know and the only person who would have told him no longer could. Actually, Sengoku realised, Roci wouldn't have told him regardless. He'd become unnervingly good at hiding his emotions - that's why he had been sent on the mission that killed him.

Sengoku wearily stood up and made his way across his office to the safe where he kept old photos. There were only two in there. Him with Roci and him with Garp and Tsuru. He brought them back to his desk with him as he drank some more.

Him and his son. Him and his friends. One dead and the others... Well, he was probably dead to them.

Tsuru had never said a thing but she didn't have to. As atrocities after atrocities piled up, sometimes she was asked to use her powers against pirates that her powers didn't work on and marines that her powers did work on. There had used to be a light in her eyes but now there was just a grim determination to keep on going. As long as they were Marines, she would listen to him. But their easy camaraderie was long gone.

And Garp? Sengoku let out a dry laugh. Garp wasn't one for animosity. Hell, he was the reason that Sengoku was able to drink in peace right now. But any loyalty the man may have had to Sengoku was long gone.

He wasn't sure when it had started. Perhaps after Dragon had abandoned the Marines, appalled at their actions, and begun the Revolution. But it didn't matter when it had started. When Sengoku had ordered Garp to witness the execution of one grandson while fighting another, he had shattered their bond beyond repair.

Looking at the photo of him and Tsuru and Garp as recruits, he could only see Tsuru's tired eyes and Garp's betrayed ones in his mind.

Garp had never said a word to Sengoku either, about going against his family. He had told Sengoku, upon being questioned, that his grandsons had made their choices and he would respect that and face them as a Marine. But on Marineford, he had needed to force Garp down himself to stop the man from flying off against Akainu who killed Portgas. And Garp's carefree laughter had rung hollow and untrue ever since then - in the few times he laughed at all.

(Why had Garp adopted Ace? Sengoku had somewhat respected Roger too but he would never have accepted a request to shelter Roger's progeny - let alone ever be asked. Garp had always been unpredictable like that - but this had been one of the few times Sengoku actually hated him for it. He wouldn't have had to ask Garp to turn against his family if Garp hadn't adopted into it a child with criminal blood.)

Still, Sengoku shook himself back into the present, none of that mattered now. What had happened had happened and he was going to retire soon. (He couldn't keep on going, not when he had been asked to pretend that there weren't Level 6 prisoners roaming the world freely. There was a reason that only an extremely limited number of people had been allowed to know that Level 6 existed at all.)

He took another drink from his bottle of alcohol, finishing it. It was time to put photos away and stop reminiscing on the past and better days. He had known going in that being a Marine would be hard (but not this hard where he had lost everyone that he cared about) and so he would accept responsibility and move on. In the end, it was Justice that mattered the most, not the meandering thoughts of one weak soldier.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to reach out to me on Tumblr/Twitter anytime (I’m @tinycutefauna there too)
> 
> Kudos and comments (even just a <3) are always appreciated!


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